Post facing some headwinds recently, Caltex Australia Ltd (ASX: CTX) witnessed a 3% surge in its stock price on March 24, 2017 with the latest Caltex Refiner Margin update for the month of February 2017.

The group’s February unlagged Caltex Refiner Margin (CRM) was US$12.54/bbl, sightly up from January 2017 figure of US$12.08/bbl and prior year monthly comparative figure of US$8.30/bbl. The unlagged Caltex Singapore Weighted Average Margin was US$13.40/bbl against the prior month figure of US$12.82/bbl and prior year February 2016 figure of US$10.01/bbl. The result was obtained at the back of the higher AUD/USD exchange rate leading to US$0.17/bbl pricing lag for February.

On the other hand, the group reported that the sales from production in February 2017 was of the order of 425 ML which is below the prior month (January 2017) sales figure of 501 ML and prior year comparative (February 2016) sales figure of 435 ML.

For the two months from January 2017 to February 2017, the average realised CRM was US$12.56/bbl against prior year corresponding figure of US$11.14/bbl with CRM sales from production totalling 926 ML (2016: 928 ML).
 

Caltex Refiner Margin Update (Source: Company Reports)
 
Recently, we noted that the competition watchdog (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, ACCC) has raised concerns over Caltex’s acquisition proposal for Milemaker citing a reason relating to substantial lessening of competition in Melbourne’s retail petrol supply market. Through this move, CTX plans to expand its reach in Victoria via 46 Milemaker-owned outlets with the majority in Melbourne. Caltex is currently working with the ACCC to address the preliminary issues.

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